GOP leaders and the Establishment have told grassroots and Tea Party conservatives the past few years that voting for the worst Republican is still better than any Democrat. But this advice hasn’t been true over the past decade for two reasons:

Reason #1 – Nominating unprincipled, “mushy” moderates has led to more Republican losses than wins, and…

Reason #2 – When these moderate Republicans got elected to office, they governed like big-spending Democrats and grew the size and scope of government.

An old Republican “friend” recently went to the Great Northwest to back the Establishment and battle the Tea Party… again.

“I’m here today in Idaho . . . to make sure people understand that the people I’m standing with right here are the right team of conservative leaders to help the people of Idaho,” Romney said according to NPR.

“I also acknowledge that they are men of character and vision, and they’ve done a heck of a good job,” Romney said. “And if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

The former Massachusetts governor is also campaigning for Sen. Jim Risch, who is facing his first reelection campaign in Idaho’s May primary. Senator Risch has stayed true to his principles and is a member of the Senate Tea Party Caucus in Washington.

According to David Adler, director of the Andrus Center for Public Policy at Boise State University, Romney’s purpose in the state is to help with voter turnout and to keep the Republican Party from veering “into the wild right, which will hurt Idaho and hurt America.”

Adler also said that voter turnout is key for Establishment Republican candidates because “the assumption (is) that there are more moderate members of the GOP than there are hard right wingers.”

While academics and pundits try to label Tea Party candidates as “wild” or “extreme,” it pales in comparison to what we’ve seen in Washington D.C. the past few years. Out-of-control borrowing and spending, an all-out assault on the 2nd Amendment – not to mention ObamaCare – have hurt Americans much more than candidates who favor less spending and limited government.

Romney’s faith could be an asset campaigning in Idaho, as 24% of the state’s population are Mormon.

However, a growing number of Americans are unhappy with incumbents from both political parties. A January 2014 Gallup poll showed that only 47% of Americans believe their Congressman deserves re-election and just 17% believed that most Congressmen were worthy of re-election.

This is another battle in the GOP Civil War between the Establishment and the Tea Party. Are there more Republican voters who are satisfied with the status quo… or more who believe in limited government and that it’s time for change? We’ll know the evening of May 20.